A candle may provide a warm and special mood as a natural light source unlike an artificial light source such as electric lighting, and have additional advantages such as deodorization, fragrance, etc., such that use of the candle has gradually increased. The candle is lighting fuel produced by molding paraffin, bees wax, or the like, and a combustible solid, and inserting a wick into the center of the candle. In the case of lighting the wick, the candle positioned at the bottom of the wick is melted, and the melted candle rises upwardly along the wick by a capillary phenomenon to thereby be vaporized and combusted at a distal end portion of the wick, such that a flame burns. A combustion temperature of a surface flame of the candle is 1400° C. or more, a temperature of the brightest inner flame thereof is 1200° C. or more, and a temperature of a flame center thereof is 400 to 900° C.
The wick is generally used in material forms of a cotton wick, a wood wick, a zinc wick, a paper wick, etc. However, conventional candles into which wicks are inserted have unique problems as follows.
First, there is an excessive length amount of the remaining combusted wick. When an excessive length amount of the combusted wick remains, a flame size of the candle is increased, the candle burns much faster, and a large amount of soot due to combustion also occurs. Therefore, to control the flame size, it is inconvenient to periodically cut the wick or discard wax drippings from the candle. Further, in the case of the cotton wick, there is a case where a wick tip becomes bent after the candle is blown out, such that it is troublesome to cut the wick short before lighting the candle.
Second, there is a problem in that ash falls from the wick. When the ash of the wick falls, the candle is stained and looks dirty in view of aesthetics, and it is inconvenient to remove the ash.
In recent years, technologies for reducing soot and burning the wick properly at the time of combustion, such as a smokeless wick made of natural fibers, an eco wick, etc., have been developed. However, due to material limitations of the natural fibers, it is not enough to solve the above-described problems.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012-0148966 discloses a candle wick having a cross (+) shape in which the candle wick is perpendicularly oriented. In this case, the candle wick may be supported in an upright manner through the cross (+) shape, but problems of soot and ash still remain.
Korean Patent Publication No. 1492333 discloses a natural material candle wick produced from the heart of a stem of Stephanandra incise, and describes that incomplete combustion is able to be suppressed through the natural material candle wick. However, since hydrocarbon-based organic materials are used as a wick material, occurrence of soot and ash may still be a problem, and since physicochemical properties of the natural material are not uniform, and there is wide variation in amounts of soot and ash for each product. Therefore, there is a need to develop a technology in which a length of a wick remaining after combustion is able to be constantly maintained without causing the soot and ash.